


Holiday Magic (Even After All These Years)

by afteriwake



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas Caroling, Christmas Fluff, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Happy Ending, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Steve Rogers-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5508401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the first Christmas Steve gets to experience after being awoken, he realizes there is so much to do and see. Maybe too much. Fortunately Maria offers her services, and during their time enjoying the Christmas sights one thing leads to another and they end up deciding there might be a better way to spend the evening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holiday Magic (Even After All These Years)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mellovesall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellovesall/gifts).



> So a friend of mine had requested some cheer-up fic from [Project: Bring Some Holiday Cheer](http://penaltywaltz.tumblr.com/post/135405692533/i-want-to-do-something-to-make-some-people-smile) that was for a ship I had never written before which sparked an idea for a longer fic, and this is the fic! My dear dear friend **mellovesall** asked for a Steve Rogers/Maria Hill fic with the prompt " _the color red_ " and I remember reading that Steve was colorblind pre-serum and that tidbit inspired this. So please, I hope you all enjoy!

Among all the things that had ailed him when he’d been a sickly kid was color blindness. They had a fancy term for what he’d had nowadays, deuteranopia, but all he’d known growing up was he couldn’t see red or green like normal kids. Everything had seemed off to him: reds had seemed like a shade of brown and greens had seemed like a shade of lighter brown. It had made art classes hard, that was the truth. But he’d managed, he always did.

It had been one of the things he’d loved about his life after the serum, being able to see the full range of color. Even getting to see the color purple had been a treat; before it had just been a darker shade of blue. But Christmas…even in the middle of a war, people had still wanted to celebrate Christmas, and there had been some decorations up, some nice things the times he’d gotten to go to London.

But it was nothing like this.

He’d wanted to stay in New York for the holidays. He’d heard New York went all out, but after the attack by Loki everything was subdued. The resilient spirit didn’t seem to be there, for some reason, and that surprised him. Maybe it was a sign of the times, he supposed. So when S.H.I.E.L.D. offered him a position and a nice apartment in DC and the chance for a fresh start once he was done going back to his self-imposed seclusion in the cabin-slash- S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house he went for it. He’d arrived just when Washington was starting to go all out for Christmas.

There were lights everywhere, decorations everywhere…with the snow falling off and on it felt like a real winter wonderland. There was a lot to see and a lot to do and he honestly wondered if he’d get to take it all in, if there’d be enough time to soak it all up in twenty-five days while actually doing work for S.H.I.E.L.D. as well.

“Hey there, Cap,” Maria said with a grin as she caught him putting on his bomber jacket. He had to admit it was strange seeing her in normal clothes, as opposed to the “spy catsuit,” as Natasha jokingly called the work wear they wore on missions. Today she had on a red cowl neck sweater and black slacks, and her hair was pulled back in its usual twist. “You look like you’re on a mission, and not a S.H.I.E.L.D. one.”

“Trying to figure out what to go do tonight,” he said, giving her a grin back. He liked Maria, to be honest. Of all the people he’d dealt with in the Battle of New York and the time afterward, he got the sense Maria was one of the few he could really trust. She might hedge the truth around him if it would protect him, but she’d try her best never to lie to him. She respected him too much for that, even if she was Fury’s right hand woman. And he, in turn, respected her. “They do a lot here for Christmas.”

She nodded. “The Capitol goes all out. But take it from me, there’s some stuff that’s just for the tourists.”

He moved over and sat on the edge of her desk, his grin getting wider. “And you’d know how to weed that stuff out?”

“I’ve been in DC for six years now, Cap,” she said, her grin getting wider as she leaned in. “I could save you the hassle.”

“Then let’s go,” he said, leaning in as well. “And the name’s Steve.”

She blinked for a moment, and then nodded. “Okay, Steve. Let me show you how a local celebrates Christmas in the Capitol.”

**\---**

An hour and a half later and they were walking around at the National Zoo, and he had to admit, he was really enjoying himself. They’d been keeping up a pretty steady stream of conversation and he’d been learning a lot about Maria and she’d probably been learning a lot about him, too. Or at least he hoped.

“I swear, I had never heard the song until two days ago,” he said with a laugh, hands in his pockets. “I mean, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer _existed_ before I was frozen, but the song didn’t.”

Maria laughed and then tilted her head. “What was it like? I mean Rudolph, back then?”

“To be honest? I wouldn’t know exactly,” he said with a grin. “He was designed in…I want to say 1939? It was after I got out of art school. But I was red-green colorblind until I got the serum, and that wasn’t until after I got into the army in 1941, and with the war going on there wasn’t much use for Rudolph overseas, which is where I was for the last few Christmases before I was frozen. But from what I remember, he was…cute. Of course, his red nose just seemed brown to me, like all the rest of their noses.”

“So you’re telling me you couldn’t tell red from brown?” He nodded. “That had to suck. Well, now that you can, one day I’ll have to introduce you to the cartoon that came out in the 1960s,” she said.

He stopped for a moment and pulled out his notebook and pen. He’d started taking notes of things he should experience. “So there’s a cartoon version of Rudolph?” he asked, looking at her before he started writing.

She shook her head. “You know what? How do you feel about planting yourself in front of my television and watching a bunch of old fashioned Christmas cartoons? I have all the classics: ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Santa Claus is Comin' to Town,’ ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,’ ‘Frosty The Snowman,’ ‘A Year Without Santa Claus,’ ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol,’ ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’…even ‘Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas.’ Just you and me and cartoons and maybe some good Chinese take-out or something. It can be…I don’t know. A ‘get to know the fun side of Christmas’ thing.”

“Or a date?” he said, offering her his arm.

She paused, and then grinned as she took his arm. “Yeah, or it could be a date,” she said. “But next time, Steve? There should be an actual date of some sort. Where we go someplace that is not my apartment.”

He laughed at that. “I’ll make sure of it, Maria.”

“Good.”


End file.
